Men's Golf Fourth Through Two Rounds at NCAA's

May 25, 2014, 09:17 PM (CT)
Updated: May 25, 2014, 09:20 PM (CT)

LSU's Stewart Jolly

Steven Colquitt

Will Stafford (@WillStaffordLSU)
Associate SID

HUTCHINSON, Kan. – After Saturday’s second round of stroke play was suspended due to darkness, the 16th-ranked LSU Tigers returned to the par-70 course at Prairie Dunes Country Club on Sunday morning to finish off their round of 2-under par 278 to take fourth place after 36 holes at the 2014 NCAA Division I Men’s Golf Championships.

The Tigers were playing holes 12-15 on the back nine of their second round when play was suspended at 8:30 p.m. CT on Saturday night before resuming play at 7 a.m. on Sunday morning.

Led by scores of 3-under 67 by junior Ben Taylor and 2-under 68 by junior First-Team All-SEC selection Stewart Jolly, the Tigers followed their 1-under 279 in the first round with a 2-under 278 in the second round holing out after 36 holes in sole possession of fourth place in the 30-team NCAA Championships field at 3-under 557 for the tournament.

LSU finds itself nine shots out of the lead in the race for the No. 1 seed in match play with just one round of stroke play remaining as No. 3-ranked Stanford holds the top spot at 12-under par 548 after firing themselves into the lead with a tournament-low score of 13-under par 267 in the second round.

The Top 8 teams in the team standings after 54 holes of stroke play advance to a single-elimination match-play tournament for the national championship that is set to begin Tuesday with the quarterfinal and semifinal rounds. Rounding out the Top 8 of the team standings for 36 holes are No. 1-ranked Alabama in second place at 8-under 552, No. 2-ranked Oklahoma State in third place at 4-under 556, No. 4-ranked Georgia Tech in fifth place at 1-under 559, No. 14-ranked Oklahoma and No. 28-ranked SMU in a tie for sixth place at even-par 560 and No. 21-ranked UCLA in eighth place at 3-over 563.

This year’s NCAA Championships endured its fourth weather delay for the weekend as teams completed their second rounds Sunday with lightning stopping play once again at 10:03 a.m. CT. Play resumed at 11:40 a.m. before tournament officials announced a change to the format to ensure that 54 holes will be played to determine the eight teams advancing to match play.

Monday’s fourth round of stroke play that would have decided the NCAA individual champion was canceled to provide for the completion of the third round of stroke play in the team competition. The NCAA individual champion will now be crowned after 54 holes once the third round is completed on Monday afternoon.

After the conclusion of the second round on Sunday afternoon, teams 16-30 in the team standings started their third rounds with a shotgun start at 4:40 p.m. CT and will continue play on Monday at 7:30 a.m.

Teams that finished the second round in placed 1-15 in the team standings will tee off in their third round on Monday afternoon. The Tigers are paired with Georgia Tech and SMU in their third round of stroke play, and will tee off from the front nine beginning at 12:30 p.m. CT.

Taylor will tee off Monday just outside the Top 10 of the leaderboard in his NCAA Championships debut as he wrapped up Sunday’s action as the top Tiger in a tie for 13th place overall at 2-under par 138 for the event in two rounds. The England international is four shots out of the lead held by Stanford’s Cameron Wilson, who has fired rounds of 1-over 71 and 7-under 63 for a leading score of 6-under 134 for 36 holes.

Junior Curtis Thompson finished off a round of 1-over par 71 for the Tigers in the second round to crack the Top 20 of the leaderboard in a tie for 18th place at 1-under par 139 for the weekend. Senior Smylie Kaufman is in a tie for 26th place at even-par 140 for the championship after adding a 2-over par 72 toward LSU’s team score during the second round.

Jolly ended the second round in a tie for 50th place at 2-over par 142, while sophomore Zach Wright rounded out the lineup in a tie for 89th place at 5-over par 145 for the championship.

Golf Channel kicks off its live coverage of this year’s NCAA Division I Men’s Golf Championships on Monday with six hours of coverage, beginning at 1 p.m. CT with live look-ins to the tournament during its Golf Central Pregame show hosted by Kelly Tilghman, Charlie Rymer, Holly Sonders and Steve Burkowski. Golf Channel’s exclusive live tournament coverage of the NCAA Championships will then follow from 3-6 p.m. CT to feature the crowning of the NCAA individual champion and the qualification of the Top 8 teams advancing to Tuesday’s match play.